>> did someone have it all wrong? were innocent men in prison for a murder they did not commit? a 22-year mystery until facebook helped old friends find each other and justice. >> did you ever imagine you would actually cause such a thing? >> not in a million years. >> together they uncovered an almost unbelievable truth. >> it all made sense. none of us knew what happened that night. this all made sense. >> somebody seen it. somebody knew. >> all rise. >> now, they just had to get someone to believe them. >> oh, my god, we're losing. oh, my god, we're winning. oh, my god, we're losing. >> we'll face whatever has to come. >> this was it. >> this was it, for sure. hello and welcome to "dateline." it started with a party, high school seniors celebrating the end of the school year and new beginnings. but before the night was through, one man would be dead and two others could not know it then but they would be facing a decades long battle to prove their innocence. here's keith morrison with "graduation night." >> reporter: the suburbs outside detroit, michigan, in the summer of 2009, a divorced mother of three named mary evans was poking around in one of her favorite places, facebook. >> you can look up what everyone is up to, where are they at today, are they successful, did they take the wrong path? >> reporter: dear mary, no idea that innocent poking into her past would dredge up a shocking truth, long buried. >> i was stunned. it was unbelievable. >> reporter: and a nightmare's worth of terror. >> i could have been killed that day. >> reporter: and would bring together an unlikely band of friend, old and new, in a fight to right a terrible wrong. >> and then a miracle happened. >> reporter: but in 2009 it was just an ordinary summer day. no sign of providence anywhere. just mary reminiscing about the old days and friends long since gone away and, well, you know how it is. a person wonders. not such an uncommon thing among people who grew up as mary did in northeast detroit. >> when i moved in it was actually a nice neighborhood. you could walk around the streets 1:00 in the morning in the summer. never had to worry about anything. >> yes. >> and then -- >> it changed. >> oh, it definitely changed. >> yeah. >> started going really downhill. >> reporter: that particular summer day mary was in a mood to remember the good times, good friends and on facebook there was something called the northeast detroit alumni group. so what did you do in this group on facebook? >> what that was all about is being in touch with long lost friends, people from the neighborhood. >> reporter: including a couple of brothers, old friends from the neighborhood who she remembered with a twinge did not turn out so well. tommy and ray went to prison, in fact, for murder. mary followed the case way back then in 1987, remembers just how she felt when they were found guilty. >> i was shocked. you know, i was shocked to hear that. i thought, no way. >> didn't sound like them to you? >> no. >> reporter: anyway, there she was thinking about them again fopdly. so she wrote a line about missing them whenever she hears a certain song on the radio and then she sighed and pushed the send button and look out. >> people might have trouble believing that such a simple thing as a posting on facebook could make whole worlds change. >> a lot of people ask, well, what was it? what did you do? what happened? >> i said all i did was put one sentence. just one sentence. >> reporter: so she did. and 500 miles away in the suburbs of washington, d.c. >> what were you doing on facebook? >> just wasting time, like a lot of people do. >> reporter: kevin zieleniewski grew up in detroit too, but was now an international trade attorney in d.c. he and mary didn't know each other, weren't even facebook friends for that matter. but both belonged to that northeast detroit group, which is why that very same summer day in 2009, he happened to see mary's post about those boys in prison for murder. >> said something to the effect that tommy and raymond highers are in prison for life. every time i hear "miss you" by the stones, i think of those guys. >> did you know those two guys? >> no, i didn't know them. >> reporter: which by all rights should have been the end of it. but something in that post tripped a wire deep in the crater of kevin's memory. that name, highers. he had heard it before. he was sure of it. in connection with a murder case. way back in the late '80s. and that memory lit up another one clear as day. the indelible memory of a bizarre story a college roommate told him one night in '93 or so. he could hardly believe it then. but now when he saw mary's post, no, couldn't be. were those old stories somehow connected? maybe mary could tell him. >> i sent back to her, they wouldn't happen to be in prison for killing old man bob and she got back and said, yes, they are in prison for killing old man bob. >> old man bob was robert karey, well-known fence, loan shark, drug dealer, murdered at the back door of his east detroit home in the summer of 1987. kevin was already on the computer that day in 2009, so he pulled up the michigan department of corrections website, saw pictures of tommy and ray highers. confirmed they were in prison doing life without parole for the murder of old man bob. it was then it hit him. like a brick in the face. something about those pictures was very, very wrong. only one thing to do. kevin picked up the phone and called that old college roommate. a man he hadn't seen for at least a decade. this man, john hielscher. >> he said it was about old man bob. i started freaking out. i'm not doing it. i'm not doing any of this. >> how come? >> scared. felt scared. >> but if he was scared now, oh, just wait. mary's little post and the connections it pulled up in kevin's brain had just made john hielscher part of a team he wasn't sure he wanted to belong to and the next move was his. >> as a band of friends sets out on a journey to find justice, they first need to find out what really happened the night old man bob was murdered. coming up -- >> i got halfway through and went, oh, my god. >> when "dateline" continues. wi. the only one to combine a safe sleep aid. and the 12-hour pain relieving strength of aleve. so...magic mornings happen. there's a better choice. aleve pm. whoh no, that looks grossit. what is that? 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>> a couple weeks later, we ended up taking a lie detector test. it was one of the toughest things i've had to do when you're strapped up. i was sweating buckets. >> and the polygrapher detexted john was being truthful. he passed with flying colors. and then nothing. neither kevin nor john heard anything more from that lawyer. >> i thought it got dropped. kind of wishing, oh, good, it's not going to come back, that's it. >> reporter: and that would have been the end of it most likely had it not been for her. over on the other side of detroit, though john and kevin couldn't possibly have known it, was a private investigator who, truth be told, had just about given up on the case of the highers brothers. >> we weren't getting anywhere. >> reporter: private eye julian had agreed to work the case for a fraction of her usual fee when the highers family begged her to find evidence of the boys' innocence. she tended to agree with them. but in her long search, she had been unable to find anyone or any facts that could challenge the story about old man bob's murder that was told at the trial, which was this. >> i was home, and it was a friday night. he's getting a lot of phone calls. there's a guy sitting in the kitchen weighing out bags of weed. people calling saying, here's what i'm going to want. mostly people come to the back door. >> reporter: an eyewitness to it all was sitting in his car out on the street. we built this animation to illustrate what he later told the police. >> about 9:30, an omni, horizon light in color pulled up in front of his house and two guys walked up the driveway to the back door and he hears shots fired and shortly thereafter, he sees some guys hoofing down the driveway. they get back in the omni horizon and drive off. >> so this guy, the witness says, must have been them? >> right. everybody assumes the people running down the driveway shot him, yes. >> the dealer known as old man bob was dead of a single gunshot wound to the chest. detectives looked high and low for that getaway car. no luck. so the cop canvassed the usual suspects and, bingo, a jailhouse informant named a possible shooter. neighborhood kid named tommy highers. what do you know, tommy knew old man bob. owed him money. used drugs. even told friends he was going to visit bob that night. they prepared a lineup. but when they showed the pictures to that eyewitness, he didn't pick out tommy. he pointed to tommy's brother ray. told police he was positive, 100% sure ray was one of the young men running down the driveway and hopping in the car after the murder. so both brothers were arrested and tried and convicted and sitting in the courtroom, the aunt who loved them all their lives was devastated. >> i can't even imagine why they got life without parole even, without parole. >> this is aunt jan hert. >> it was very hopeless. very hopeless. >> did you believe that they would have done this? >> never. i never believed it for one minute. >> the family stuck by tommy and ray as the men watched their 20s and then their 30s come and go in state prison. now, here they were in their mid-40s. still telling everybody and anybody, including us, that they did not kill old man bob. >> i just walked with the faith and i was just like, this is not the end. >> reporter: the brothers had turned down any and all plea deals determined, instead, to clear their names. they joined every prison program, took every class they could to improve themselves. >> we schooled ourselves. we always took any kind of programs they had to offer. >> both of you? >> yeah, absolutely. worked every day. and just held our heads up. >> but to prove their innocence, they needed some solid new evidence and by 2009, after 22 years, even their family had about given up on that. >> had you actually gotten to the stage where you thought, well, they'll be there for the rest of their lives, nothing we can do about it? >> i did. to be honest, i did. >> reporter: and so too did the private eye, julie ann cunio. stop working the case or tried to. but tommy kept on the calling. >> i'd be like, you can't keep calling me. then one day i picked up the phone and it was tommy again and i just didn't have anything to do. i said, fine, fine. this was purely to get tommy off my back. i thought i was going to do a couple things and i'd be done again. yeah. i can get tommy out of my life. >> reporter: so she picked up the phone, called tommy's lawyer who sent her a copy of the affidavit, the sworn story told by, guess who? that old college roommate of kevin's, john hielscher. the one who claimed he was there at old man bob's when the murder took place. and when the private eye read that -- >> i got halfway through this thing and just went holy [ bleep ]. oh, my god! >> coming up -- a close encounter with killers. >> i'm dead. that's the first thing that came to my head. he's going to shoot me. >> but are they the same men spending life in prison for murder? >> i tell people it's the miracle of facebook. >> when "dateline" continues. good morning! oh no, here comes the neighbor probably to brag about how amazing his xfinity customer service is. i'm mike, i'm so busy. good thing xfinity has two-hour appointment windows. they have night and weekend appointments too. he's here. bill? karolyn? nope! no, just a couple of rocks. download the my account app to manage your appointments making today's xfinity customer service simple, easy, awesome. i'll pass. i tell people it's the miracle of facebook. you know, without facebook it wouldn't have happened. >> reporter: detroit private eye julianne cuneo had been baffled for years about the mystery of the murder of old man bob. the murder that put tommy and ray hyers in prison for life. late in the blue in late 2010, because some woman had a moment of nostalgia and posted a casual note on facebook, an affidavit landed on julie ann's desk from a man she never heard of, john hielscher. >> it had to be real. it had to be true. >> like a piece of heaven falling down in your lap. >> yeah. >> reporter: john told julianne what happened that awful night in the summer of 1987. it was party night, he said. john and his classmates just graduated from grosse pointe north high school. that's in the suburb where the captains of industry lived. several miles and tax brackets across the city line of detroit. and after a few beers, the partiers decided to drive over and buy some marijuana from old man bob. >> you just call up, say you're coming by, go to the back door. there. that's what we were going to do that night. >> reporter: jon and four friends jumped in a car, a white plymouth horizon and drove over to make the buy. when they got there, they walked up the driveway to bob's back door just as that eyewitness later told the police. except for one detail, and it was a big one. the eyewitness identified the highers brothers as the young man he saw in the driveway. but said john hielscher, it wasn't them. it was him. he and one of his grosse pointe buddies went up that driveway. >> we made it to the back door and as soon as we knocked on the door and he opened it, i heard commotion behind me and we saw people jump over the fence coming towards us. and one with a gun leveled at us. and we saw all the other people running towards bob, especially a guy with a shotgun. i just remembered. i'm dead. that's the first thing that came to mind. he's going to shoot me. i froze. we froze. all he said was get the bleep out of here. and we turned so fast and ran back to the car, i've never ran so fast in my life. as we were running back, they had heard the gunshot. i said get the hell out of here and he screeched the cars and got out of there as quick as we could. >> reporter: and after the five returned to the graduation party. >> i was still freaking out. we all were. and people are wondering, what's the matter with you? what happened? and someone told them what happened and part of the people, oh, i don't believe you. they didn't believe us. >> but you were freaking out? >> oh, yeah. i could have been killed that day. >> came close. >> came close. i had a gun pointed right to my face. >> reporter: then when he went home, he watched the news, read the paper, looked for news of the shooting but didn't see anything. never did find out what happened to old man bob. >> i didn't hear nothing of it. i didn't know -- i never saw him actually die. >> yeah. >> so i didn't really know. >> reporter: so he said he just tried to forget it. he joined the army, served in the persian gulf, moved on with his life. never told a soul apart from his girlfriend. and then one night in 1993, six years after the incident, he told kevin zieleniewski. and it was one telling detail in john's story that kevin never forget in the night. those people who jumped over the fence, they weren't white kids. they were black. >> you had no idea that two men went to prison for this? >> no, not until kevin called me in 2009. >> did you even know the highers brothers? >> i had no clue who they were. never soon them in my life. >> total strangers? >> total strangers. i said this isn't right. because it involved a different race. it was not two white people. >> that piece of information, more than 20 years after the murder, was what tommy and ray and their family had about lost hope they would ever find. >> when i finally got the whole story, it was like, damn, somebody seen it. somebody knew. >> this all made sense. >> it was just a matter of mistaken identity. >> absolutely. it proves everything we sat and believed for the last 25 years. >> john's story, which would have disappeared forever had it not been for mary's facebook post and kevin's steel trap memory, now gave aunt jan and all those who loved and believed in tommy and ray new determination. the family brought in a whole new legal team with one goal, nail down the evidence, get the brothers out of prison. attorneys jan knapp and valerie newman. >> i thought this case should have never been charged. >> a mistake happened. a mistake happened and ended up with two men spending potentially the rest of their lives in prison. >> reporter: now if only the team could find the other people in the car with john that night, and if they all told the same story, maybe then they'd have something. coming up -- after more than two decades, the moment of truth. >> it was pins and needles. i mean, it was our life. >> this was it. >> this was it for sure. >> when "dateline" continues. a hail of fire and brimstone? or we could do a hail of coupons? i can assure you gina, the enemy does not fear coupons. well there are no bad ideas. yah, except coupons. possibly the best yogurt in the world. you have power over pain, so the whole world looks different. the unbeatable strength of advil. what pain? they use stamps.com all the services of the post office only cheaper get a 4-week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again. hello, i'm dara brown. the death toll rises to 27 in thailand from a shooting rampage. a soldier opened fire in a mall before being shot and killed. 57 people injured. over 30 of them are still hospitalized. the u.s. embassy in beijing is reporting what appear be the first american death due to the coronavirus. the 60-year-old citizen died in wuhan, china. chinese health officials say there have been 811 deaths from the virus in mainland china. now back to "dateline." welcome back to "dateline." i'm craig melvin. after spending more than 20 years behind bars for a murder they said they did not commit, tommy and ray highers were given two valuable thing, hope and a potential eyewitness, a stranger named john hielscher came forward to incest i saw the real killers but can one man's claim be enough to overturn a vick. for their team it was time to go about the task of proving it. once again here's keith morrison with "graduation night." private eye julianne cuneo and the others who joined her efforts for the highers' brothers believe the newly discovered witness john hielscher was telling the truth. now, if they could only find those four high school friends hielscher claimed were with him. were with him the night when he and they took a trip to buy marijuana from a neighborhood drug dealer known as old man bob back in 1987. a trip that ended in gunfire. first, bad news. julianne discovered the driver of the car died. but his family confirmed he drove a white plymouth horizon. the same type of car an eyewitness had seen fleeing the scene. >> that was important, to be able to make that connection? >> right, because the linchpin is that these guys were in a white omni, omni horizon. they're the same car basically. >> reporter: then one by one they did find them. the kids now 40-something, who had been in the car, heard the very same things john hielscher told them. this man, john korver was riding in the front passenger seat and he confirmed the story. >> you can just see it dawn on his face that two guys have been sitting in jail for nearly 25 years. >> the woman who was a high school senior was dating one of the men in the car confirmed she saw it too. though getting her to talk was no easy task. but none was more reluctant than that young man who walked up the drive to the back door with john hielscher and then fled down again in terror when a shot was fired. why wouldn't he talk about it? >> pretty much all of our witnesses grew up in fairly wealthy, well to do families and it seemed to be an embarrassment that they had gone into east detroit to buy marijuana. >> for months, he would only communicate through his sister, an attorney. he refused to tell the investigators what he knew, seemed to go to great lengths to avoid the call. >> he wanted no part of it. which i still really can't understand because it's not often that you get to be a hero. >> reporter: finally, what could the lawyers do? they subpoenaed him. >> it had to be done. we had two innocent men in prison. there was no choice. >> reporter: finally, they all wound up right here, detroit's frank murphy hall of justice, spring 2012. the lawyers appointed to represent the long imprisoned brothers, tommy and ray highers, had hoped to avoid this. they had allowed them to think the wayne county d.a.'s office might see the new evidence about the night old man bob was killed, see that a mistake was made and rectify it, but -- >> we had a prosecutor's office that was very uncooperative in the face of overwhelming evidence of innocence. >> did that surprise you? >> no. it's an amazing ability to blind yourself to everything except what you want to look at. >> all rise. >> reporter: of course, that was a defense attorney's point of view. and so here they were in court to fight it out. just getting this hearing took a year of their efforts and persuading all those witnesses to testify about a moment in time so long ago was no less difficult. knowing that, tommy and ray's family became a sort of cheering section in court. >> we filled up the room, and we wanted to show everybody that we were there to back them up and we just wanted to be there for them. >> reporter: all crowded the courtroom of judge lawrence talon who would decide if the new evidence merited a new trial. finally, tommy and ray highers filed into court. the brothers who from day one insisted they were innocent, whose family never stopped believing in them. looking like just what they were, survivors of a quarter century in prison. >> it was pins and needles. i mean, it was our life. because if he didn't believe what he was hearing, we were going right back to the state pen. >> and there was never no more relief. >> this was it? >> this was it for sure. >> good morning your honor. valerie newman. >> when i got to hearing, it was all-out warfare. >> you may call your first witness. >> reporter: the defense began laying out the strange tale from the start with mary evans and her 2009 facebook post. >> miss evans, why have you come forward in this case? >> on the streets, i always heard that highers didn't do it. >> next the d.c. lawyer who just happened to answer that post of mary's. >> would you please state your name for the record. >> kevin zieleniewski. >> reporter: on the stand kevin retold the story that john, the old roommate told him way back in 1993. >> he made a comment, you wouldn't believe what happened that night. >> reporter: so said kevin, he felt a duty to step in. >> why are you here today? >> two innocent people are in prison for life. i learned information that could help set them free. and i felt compelled to bring that information forward. >> reporter: then one by one, the witnesses. the now 40-somethings who told the court about that night outside old man bob's house where they had gone to buy marijuana for their graduation party and that it was their friends, not the highers brothers who came running down the driveway. >> and how did they look when they got in the car? >> terrified. >> why are you coming forward? >> two minutes is too long in prison let alone 20-some years. >> reporter: even the reluctant witness, the one they had to subpoena to get to court confirmed all of it. as did the man who threw the graduation party that night. >> he was very forthcoming and said, sure, i remember that day. they pulled up, they were a wreck, and they told me what happened. and you just don't forget something like that. >> reporter: finally, the man whose comments to his roommate nearly two decades earlier kept the old story alive. >> the defense calls john hielscher. >> what was it like, the process of testifying at this hearing? >> i've been to combat, i've jumped out of planes and that was the toughest thing i had to do. >> reporter: john hielscher, who was horrified he never found out for certain that old man bob was murdered told the story he had never before publicly discussed. complete with what he heard and saw after walking up to old man bob's back door. >> i heard commotion coming from the alley behind bob's house. i saw four african-american males hopping over the chain-link fence from the alley and they were running towards the house. >> okay. then what happened next? >> i saw a larger african-american male with what appeared to be a shotgun and then i saw another african-american male with a handgun, told us to get the [ bleep ] out of there. >> what did you do then? >> i proceeded to turn around and run as fast as i could. >> did you hear anything? >> as i was turning to run, i did hear a gunshot. >> were you scared? >> i'm still scared. >> have you ever been afraid like that after that? >> when i was in combat. >> are you telling the truth? >> yes, ma'am. >> and why are you you here? >> because there's two innocent people that -- >> objection. >> reporter: but then it was the prosecution's turn and wayne county assistant d.a. made it perfectly clear she didn't believe all those new witnesses coming forward to tell the story or what they said in their sworn statements, which she picked apart word by word. >> no, ma'am. that's not correct. >> oh, it's not correct. so your affidavit is wrong? >> reporter: the assistant prosecutor went methodically through the testimony of each witness and suggested sometimes gently, sometimes not, that they were all lying, had concocted the old story to help free tommy and ray highers. >> i think -- >> my understanding is that -- >> listen to my question. aren't they friends with you on facebook? yes or no? >> well, i would say no -- >> judge -- >> reporter: but said tommy and ray's attorneys it was the assistant prosecutor who concocted a story. >> the prosecution had nothing to contradict our theory, absolutely nothing. when you have nothing, you concoct something. and so what they concocted was a grand conspiracy theory. >> did that surprise you? >> it did. to have people who are unconnected to the defendants to come together in this huge conspiracy to cook something up doesn't make sense. >> but in the end, it was up to the judge to decide if the new evidence was cooked up, as the prosecutor claimed, or compelling enough to give the highers brothers their first shot at freedom in 25 years. >> coming up -- the judge rules. will the highers brothers get a second chance? >> we'll fight and we'll face whatever has to come. >> when "dateline" continues. fast. only thermacare ultra pain relieving cream has 4 active ingredients to fight pain 4 different ways. get powerful relief today, with thermacare. there he is. oh, wow. you're doing, uh, you're doing really great with the twirling. dad, if you want to talk, i have a break at 3:00. okay, okay. i'm going. i'm gone. like -- like i wasn't here. 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[ applause ] >> all right. >> a weight just fell off my shoulders. it was just, oh, finally, thank you. thank you. >> everybody was hugging. >> it was just a joyous scene. >> you would think, looking at this, that tommy and ray highers had just been declared innocent of the murder of old man bob. but that is not what happened. not even two weeks later when the judge decided to release the brothers on bond to await trial. [ applause ] >> and tommy and raymond highers walked out of jail for the first time in more than 25 years. >> welcome home. >> it certainly felt like victory, looked like victory. >> it was like someone had hit a grand slam at the ballpark. >> oh, my god. >> oh, man. >> helman -- >> hell, yeah. >> here's my wonderful attorney. i'll tell you now. i'm telling you now. hey, she is the bomb. >> but tommy and ray highers were merely men on bail awaiting trial for murder. a trial the prosecution gave every indication it was especially determined to win. and thus send these two men right back where they came from, state prison. what's it like to be sitting here talking about what's happened to you? >> you can't even put it into words, the feeling that goes through you. >> reporter: which gave us a chance to talk to them as they prepared for their biggest fight yet for exoneration and they hoped, permanent freedom. >> we'll fight, and we'll face whatever has to come. >> reporter: and here they told us their version of what happened the night old man bob was killed. >> we got involved in things we shouldn't have been involved in, drugs. >> that was the main thing. >> reporter: and that night, june 26, 1987, the brothers did, indeed, go over to bob's house they said. saw the police were there and assumed -- >> we figured he was being raided. >> that's exactly what we thought. that he was being raided. >> never even stopped. there was so much police out there that we just kept going. >> it never occurred to us that he was murdered. >> right. . >> reporter: a week later they were under arrest. >> walked in there and never walked out. >> they were 21 and 22 when they went in. but now they said they are not the same men as they were then and that that is a good thing. >> i'm not ashamed of being in prison because prison made -- that's who i am today. prison made this man. my morals, my integrity. >> i mean, in a way a positive experience and yet one you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy? >> right, exactly. >> you still hold on to the light and you push forward every day. >> what's on the agenda today, guys? >> after their release, they moved in with their aunt jan and wore electronic tethers to monitor their whereabouts, mandated by the court. they were like rip van winkles awakened to the real world learning to use cell phones, getting their driver's licenses. >> waiting to get that all my life. first one i've ever had. >> and getting up in the morning and going to work. ray at an industrial heating and cooling company. tommy, head of maintenance at an apartment complex. at the very same time, the wayne county prosecutor's office was preparing its case against them to put them back into prison for life. preparing it as we sat here talking. though, as the brothers told us here, the d.a. has put an offer on the table, they can keep their freedom if they agree to one condition. >> what plea are they offering? >> for us to plead guilty and we get time served. >> would you? >> no. >> we stood on our innocence and we screamed it from the top of our lungs for 25 years. and then for the people that got behind us and believed in us, for us to do that would just be like a slap in their face and then it would just tear my integrity right out of my body. so we're innocent. and nothing is going to change that. >> there will be people in the audience who will still believe you did it. >> sure. i mean, you can't convince everybody. >> you're kind of used to that now. >> sure. but all we want to do is convince 12. >> reporter: those 12 would be the jurors sitting in judgment at their upcoming retrial for murder. tommy and ray highers were going back to court to see if free men they would remain. coming up -- a courtroom game of chicken. game of chicken. who blinked first?n, so the whole world looks different. the unbeatable strength and speed of advil liqui-gels. what pain? where does your almondmilk almond breeze starts here with our almond trees in our blue diamond orchard in california. my parents' job is to look after them. and it's my job to test the product. the best almonds make the best almondmilk. blue diamond almond breeze. the hall of justice was waiting again for tommy and ray highers. the very place they were sent away in the first place. >> i hate going into the courtroom. i hate going to the courthouse. i hate parking in the parking lot to get to the courthouse. you know what i mean? it's like i just -- but it's something that we got to deal with. and it's going to be head on. >> reporter: as we talked, two weeks before the scheduled start of their trial, the wayne county prosecutor's office was forging ahead, once again charging the brothers with the murder of robert karey, old man bob. >> how nervous are you about this? >> you know, of course, you're going to be nervous. your lives are in other people's hands still. >> reporter: for the past several months, tommy and ray's defense attorneys had been attending pretrial hearings, sending motions back and forth as lawyers do, all the while hoping the d.a. would come to see it their way and simply drop the charges. >> i was confident it was a game of chicken. because they had no evidence. >> reporter: but with each legal step in the march towards trial, they were disappointed. the d.a. had seemed perfectly clear was very serious. >> all rise. >> reporter: then just a few days after our interview with the brothers, september 2013, everyone assembled in the courtroom. assistant d.a. reynolds had something to say. >> your honor, at this time based on consultation with prosecutor worthy, based on communications with the decedent's family and a recognition of what 26 years can do to the triability of the case, we would move to dismiss the case against the defendants at this point in time. >> and that was it. >> case dismissed. no new trial. >> it's not often that you get to give somebody their life back. that's what we did, we gave them their lives back. it was incredible. it was incredible. >> but before they all left the courtroom, the prosecutor pointedly reserved the right to refile murder charges if new evidence ever surfaces. >> are you going to allow this to hang over your head for the rest of your lives? >> absolutely not. in the last year we haven't allowed it to hang over our heads. we've mon. we've moved on in life. we're going to continue to do that. >> reporter: the wayne brady -- wayne county prosecutor, kym worthy who declined a request for an interview, took a parting shot at the brothers. issued a statement saying, "just as we did 26 years ago, we firmly believe in the evidence in this case. we have worked diligently to bring this case to trial. with the passage of time, it is an unfortunate reality that this case cannot be put back together and we must dismiss it. sadly, in this case justice was not done." really? said the people who freed tommy and ray. >> it was really disingenuous. it was not right. >> disingenuous is such a polite word. what does it really mean? >> it means they were saving face. >> it puts a stain on them that they don't deserve. they have the stain of 25 years in prison for a crime they didn't commit. then you have the prosecutor's office saying, yeah, right. kind of like we still think they're guilty. >> reporter: in 2016 michigan lawmakers paced the wrongful imprisonment compensation act calling for the state to pay exonerated prisoners $50,000 for every year spent behind bars. the higher brothers have sued the state for just over $1.2 million each. the michigan attorney's office told us the matter is under careful review but said it could not comment further on pending litigation. but now tommy and ray continue to celebrate their freedom and bond with the people who helped make it happen. like mary whose facebook post started everything. could you ever imagine you would actually cause such a thing. >> no. no, not in a million years. it's hard to get my head around it, you know. it's just an awesome feeling. >> sure. >> kevin who still shys away from taking credit. >> i happen to be a lawyer. it doesn't really seem that extraordinary to me. >> and john hielscher who can finally put the past where it belong, behind him. >> like i told them, i just wish i could have done something earlier. you wouldn't have had to sit will for so many years and tommy looked at me, gave me a hug and says, it's the way it was supposed to happen. it had to happen like this. >> they don't seem bitter at all. >> not when i met them. just glad they're home and they're out and they're free. >> free men who know none of it would have happened without family and friends, that dream team of lawyers and investigators and, of course, facebook. what would you like to say to those people who helped you along the way? >> thank you from the bottom of our heart. >> yeah. >> for believing, understanding and taking the time that most people don't do. it's like, you know, a dream come true for us because it's what we avenue's always been hoping for. >> somebody to help us. that's why we just want to live and move forward. we know it's gone. it's the past. move on, better days. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." >> jodi became travis's drug. he very much recognized how bad she was for him. but she kept showing up in his life, and just like a drug addict he kept letting her right back in the door. >> her trial riveted the country. >> we the jury find the defendant as to count one, first degree murder, guilty. >> jodi arias, who brutally murdered her lover, was facing a possible death sentence. >> did he ever think that she would do what she did? who would think that? >> it was a steamy story of sex. >> we'd hang out, we'd have